Prince-Bishopric of Brixen
The Prince-Bishopric of Brixen (Hochstift Brixen, Fürstbistum Brixen, Bistum Brixen) was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire in the present-day northern Italian province of South Tyrol. It should not be confused with the larger Catholic diocese, over which the prince-bishops exercised only the ecclesiastical authority of an ordinary bishop. The bishopric in the Eisack/Isarco valley was established in the 6th century and gradually received more secular powers. It gained imperial immediacy in 1027 and remained an Imperial Estate until 1803, when it was secularised to Tyrol. The diocese, however, existed until 1964, and is now part of the Diocese of Bolzano-Brixen. The Diocese of Brixen is the continuation of that of Säben Abbey near Klausen, which, according to legend, was founded about 350 as Sabiona by Saint Cassian of Imola. As early as the 3rd century, Christianity had penetrated Sabiona, at that time a Roman custom station of considerable commercial importance. It may have been a retreat of the bishops of Augusta Vindelicorum, the later see of Augsburg, during the Migration Period. The first Bishop of Sabiona vouched for by history is Ingenuinus, mentioned about 580, who appears as suffragan of the Patriarchs of Aquileia. The tribes who pushed into the territory of the present Diocese of Brixen, during the great migratory movements, especially the Bavarians and Lombards, accepted Christianity at an early date; only the Slavs of the Puster Valley persisted in paganism until the 8th century. By the late 6th century the region became part of the Agilolfing stem duchy of Bavaria, which in 788 finally fell under Frankish overlordship. Urged by King Charlemagne, Pope Leo III assigned Säben as a suffragan diocese to the Archbishopric of Salzburg in 798. After King Louis the Child in 901 granted Säben the demesne of Prichsna, part of the estates held by his mother Ota, Bishop Rihpert (appointed 967) or Bishop Albuin I (967-1005) had the seat of the diocese transferred to Brixen.